Herbal Cordials and Liqueurs: Ancient herbal medicine Herbal Mixology Glen Nagel, ND M.E.E.T The Herbs My herbal philosophy • Medicine making is a medicine. Smoking Kava Drink • Experience is the best teacher, make it something to remember and experience • Everyday practice your craft, your art. • Taste is the teacher, the new active ingredient is Taste, smell, sight. Herbal Mixology: The New Paradigm • The problem with herbal medicine • The problem with Mixed drinks • Taste is the active ingredient • Alcohol as medicine? • Organoleptics: the way of senses • Herbs as medicine • The Bitters • The Shrubs: Vinegar extracts • Cordials and Herbal Elixirs • Recipes Herbal Mixology : Defined as • The power of herbal phytochemicals driven into the blood stream by alcohol and wrapped in an organoleptically rich sensual experience: This is the magic and power to Herbal Mixology. • The art and science of adding medicinal value and action to the world of tasty alcoholic drinks • Bringing the value of medical tonics back to the roots of botanical medicine • My path as an herbalist, naturopathic doctor • Making medicine is medicine, DIY What is a Cordial , Elixir or Liqueur? It's also called an elixir or Liqueur the distinction lies in the way that these various flavors of these drinks are obtained liqueur cordial is a spirit-based drink which flavor elements have been added you should buy in fusion and the vast majority are enhanced by sweeteners. These usually very from 20% alcohol to 50% alcohol. The word cordial come some from the heart and are often associated with brandies and medicinal herbs History of Liqueurs, Cordials • Cordials and the cores have their origins in practice of adding aromatic ingredients such as herbs fruits seed spices nuts roots flowers to the earliest distilled spirits in order to unmask an unappealing flavor or impurities the end result was something that had medicinal value. • The base spirit in many of liqueurs was neutral which meant that many of these could be concocted in domestic kitchens used for cooking drinking and medicine as various proprietary liquid or a scam on the market to them course of the early 19th century homemaking liqueurs declined History of Liqueurs, Cordials • The science of distillation was still at its beginning in Europe there was a movement steeping certain medicinal herbs and alcohol extracted their beneficial qualities this was a very logical progression of the nonalcoholic distilling of essential oils which is practiced its ancient Egypt in classical Greece. • Distilling as an offshoot of alchemical arts was attached with the doomed enterprise of attempting to turn metals into gold. Many of the religious orders of the time created traditional liqueurs with medicinal ingredients often with monastery gardens but a late Middle Ages the Italians had created of many liqueurs and the French made Benedictine and Chartreuse History of Liqueurs, Cordials • Liqueurs of the last century had an air of soothing palatability often used as dinner digestiffs, often with women who are not fond of the stronger alcoholic alternatives. • Many these liqueurs were indeed seen as more ladylike drinks enhanced by the induction of small tiny glasses. • They started shedding their health claims and started producing them more for flavors and alcoholic effects History of Liqueurs, Cordials • The important cocktail air of the 1920s and 1930s coincided with their universal prohibition of alcohol United States but there was no such problem in London Berlin Paris. • They were freed from the strait jacket of cultural politeness and liqueurs stoked a transformation of drinks such as punches and sours and fizzes this brought into the great cocktail era, this couldn’t of happened without the homemade liqueurs and drinks. • We are essentially rediscovering the medicinal aspect of the original creators of the elixirs and Cordials. Bringing back the beauty the mystery and the medicine. This is what I call herbal mixology Common Liqueurs, Cordials Available • There are many types of commercially available liqueurs are generally flavored by many things including fruits, nut liqueurs, medicinal herb Liqueurs, the cream liqueurs and a few other famous drinks. • But the beauty of the liqueur is actually with the home herbalist and farmer creating unique fresh vibrant ideas with locally sourced ingredients made fresh that's what were going to cover today. Famously Know Liqueurs • AMARETTO: Almond flavor liqueur, made with sweet Apricot pits • Anis or Anissette a sweet liqueur from anise seed • Benedictine: A Bright golden herbalists pantheon of plants and spices potentially containing 75 ingredients • Chartreuse the greener the yellow variety rated Italy and Switzerland up to 130 herbs used to flavor grape brandy • Cream Liqueurs: Bailey's Irish cream , Cream de cacao, Cream de menthe and Cream de Cacao or Kahlua. • Kummel: or Caraway seed digestiff. Famously Know Liqueurs • The famous nut liqueurs: derived from hazelnuts walnuts almonds. Frangelico, Nocino are couple examples. • Herbal Liqueurs are the famous Pernod, Absinthe which will talk about into detail • Ouzo: Which is a strong form of aniseed which will form of white precipitate • Sambuca: Made in Italy it is quite popular is made from the flowers of elderberry goes really well almonds lemons and citrus. The Famous Damiana Liqueur from Mexico Is thought off to be a famous invigorating Aphrodisiac. Is used for strengthening the nervous system and people are tiled in tired and depressed comes in a seductive feminine bottle. Made with Turnea diffusa a wild growing plant in Mexico which is aromatic Liqueurs Recipes • Generally liqueurs are made with taking 40% alcohol like five to infusing herbal flavors straining the Herbs out adding approximately 20% sugar staring dissolving and filtering • We are going to make a classic medicinal Neutralizing Cordial, Cranberry, Quince Cordial and Rose Elder flower spring Elixir. The Green Fairy: Artemisia absinthium Good or Evil ? Sluggish Digestion Gas Inactivity ABSINTHE…….. WORMWOOD….CHANGE YOUR WORLD Thujone THC Insanity, Delusion, Visions A Bittersweet Medicine Bringing Balance, Tone, Loss Choleretic Anthelmintic, antiparasitic Stomachic, Bitter Stimulates appetite Sweet smell contrasts to bitter taste. Bittersweet medicines use to promote balance. Good for integration of physical and emotional levels. Useful for breaking the cycle destructive behavior The Green Fairy Artemisia absinthium (Wormwood) Common Names • Wormwood • The Green Fairy , • la fee verte. • The Green Muse. • From Greek work “apsinthion” meaning undrinkable. Related Species: • There are over 180 species of wormwood. • Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) • Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) • Moxa (Artemisia moxa) • Tarragon (Artemisia drancunculus) Historical Uses of Wormwood • In the Bible, grew in the Garden of Eden. • Ebers Papyrus 1550 B.C earliest written use. • Pliny the Elder noted its use against worms. • John Gerald 1597 Herbal, noted gastric tonic. • 18th century use as popular drink Absinthe. Chemistry of Wormwood • Volatile Oils: monoterpene alpha and beta thujone, chamazulene. • Sesquiterpene lactones (Bitters) including, absinthin and others. • Acetylenes: In the Root. • Flavonoids: quercetin and others • Phenolic Acids: coumaric and vanillic • Lignans. History of Absinthe: The Green Fairy • Traditional bitter medicine • Dr. Pierre Ordinaire credited with first recipe in 1792. • Sold to Major Henri Dubied produced commercially in 1797 with son in law Henri Lousi Pernod. • Pernod-Fils distillery made absinthe famous. The Ritualistic Use of Absinthe • One ounce poured in special tall glass • Slotted spoon with sugar on top. • Cold water poured over sugar. • Resulting mixture a cloudy green-yellow color. “la louche” • Sipped slowly for best enjoyment. Absinthe drinker by Degas Toxicology of Wormwood: The Thujone Connection • Alpha and betaThujone is a monoterpene found in wormwood , tansy, thuja , and saliva. • Alpha thujone is more toxic component • Structurally related to menthol. • Toxic effects include hallucinations, tremors, convulsions , psychotic behavior and paralysis. • The toxicity of thujone is related to dose. • Alcohol may be more toxic than thujone. • Thujone blocks GABA receptors in Brain. Poisoning by Wormwood Oil • New England Journal of Medicine (1997,337,825) • Man drank 10 mls of pure wormwood oil thinking it was Absinthe. • Caused acute renal failure. • Patient eventually recovers. • 1999 Journal Neurology , 2 adults, one child develop tonic -clonic seizures from topical application of oil. Toxic effects of Absinthe • LD 50 for thujone is 134 mg/kg • Pendell suggests that a 175 lb man would have to drink 50 bottles to receive toxic dose. • Typical Absinthe contained 2-4 ppm of Thujone. Current upper limit 10 ppm. • 1999 BMJ article States Alcohol most toxic part of Absinthe. Thujone and THC connection • Historical use of Absinthe affecting consciousness . • Thujones chemical structure is similar to THC (Tetrahydrocannibinol) • Thujone may interact with same receptors as THC.* • There is little research on Thujone and human health.# • *Sneden, A. T. in Introduction to Natural Products, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va., 1995, p 81. • # del Castillo, J.; Anderson, M.; Rubottom, G. M. Marijuana, Absinthe and the Central Nervous System. Nature 1975, 253, 365-366 Thujone THC Traditional Clinical Uses • Choleretic • Anthelmintic, antiparasitic • Stomachic, Bitter • Stimulates appetite A Bittersweet Medicine • Sweet